Balikbayan box shipping courier from South Dakota to Philippines

[Jfresh26 23]

Hello, my wife and I wanted to send a balikbayan box to the Philippines from USA (South Dakota). That being said, my city is small with not a lot of Filipino community. So we don’t have major shipping courier stores that CA or NY have. The UPS store here in my town didn’t know what a balikbayan box was. 
 

Planning to send some toys, clothes, used/older electronics, and a couple items from Coach to the family. All for personal use. While we want to fit it all in one large box only, that may be a bit heavy. 
 

I am wanting to see what shipping courier options were out there that’s not outrageously expensive. 

Edited December 31, 2022 by Jfresh26

[Carpe Vinum 2,327]

https://forexeship.com/forex-south-dakota/

[RO_AH 1,659]

18 hours ago, Jfresh26 said:

The UPS store here in my town didn’t know what a balikbayan box was. 

Why would they?

18 hours ago, Jfresh26 said:

While we want to fit it all in one large box only, that may be a bit heavy

There is no weight limit on BB boxes.

 

Forex would be good, you can always google (balikbayan box south dakota) too...

 

[Talako 781]

There is LBC in North Dakota:  https://www.lbcexpress.com/branches-world/North Dakota if Fargo is closer than Sioux Falls.

 

Some of these rural area BB shippers have pickup routes or runs they coordinate.   I'd call the Forex in SF and LBC in Fargo to see if they do pick up rounds.  It beats you having to drive a long ways if you live 10 miles past nowhere.  They do this in eastern Washington where west side shippers coordinate pickups in Spokane (Eastside). 

 

[RO_AH 1,659]

10 hours ago, Talako said:

There is LBC in North Dakota:  https://www.lbcexpress.com/branches-world/North Dakota if Fargo is closer than Sioux Falls.

 

Some of these rural area BB shippers have pickup routes or runs they coordinate.   I'd call the Forex in SF and LBC in Fargo to see if they do pick up rounds.  It beats you having to drive a long ways if you live 10 miles past nowhere.  They do this in eastern Washington where west side shippers coordinate pickups in Spokane (Eastside). 

 

I am lucky enough to live a few miles from 2 LBC offices and I always use them for BB boxes. I think your boxes need to be a certain size and they sell the boxes there. They are super heavy duty which is good with how heavy they are when full.

 

[marriedtomrg 141]

Wanted to add that Forex has a Packy Pack service - where "packy" is a play off of "paki," Tagalog prefix for "please do this for me." (e.g. pakidala (please send this to), pakiusap (listen to me please), pakihawak (please hold this for me))

 

You purchase items from, say Amazon - you send them to Forex, and they will either forward what you bought to your loved ones in the Philippines (piecemeal)  OR ask them to hold all your purchases - and once you have completed your shopping only then will they pack your gifts for you in a balikbayan box and ship it to your loved ones then.

[IWander 589]

On 12/31/2022 at 11:49 AM, Jfresh26 said:

Hello, my wife and I wanted to send a balikbayan box to the Philippines from USA (South Dakota). That being said, my city is small with not a lot of Filipino community. So we don’t have major shipping courier stores that CA or NY have. The UPS store here in my town didn’t know what a balikbayan box was. 
 

Planning to send some toys, clothes, used/older electronics, and a couple items from Coach to the family. All for personal use. While we want to fit it all in one large box only, that may be a bit heavy. 
 

I am wanting to see what shipping courier options were out there that’s not outrageously expensive. 

If you are willing to drive to Minnesota or Iowa you have a few options other than just LBC or Forex.  Currently IBB is $80 for large box.

Edited January 3, 2023 by IWander

[Talako 781]

On 1/3/2023 at 5:48 AM, RO_AH said:

I am lucky enough to live a few miles from 2 LBC offices and I always use them for BB boxes. I think your boxes need to be a certain size and they sell the boxes there. They are super heavy duty which is good with how heavy they are when full.

 

Yeah, that is sort of the problem.  You need a BB box up front to make it work.  The owner of a LBC franchise in Texas was a friend of my wife's, so this wasn't an issue for us.

 

I did some research in how my sister in ID could send me a BB box last year.  That was how I found out that some of these place have extended routes with pick up points.  I imagine you could get a box one time through and send the box on the next.  Just thinking out loud.